The city’s budget committee hit the gas Tuesday on the controversial study on the future of the Gardiner Expressway.

Reviving the environmental assessment (EA) for the crumbling elevated highway will cost $4.4 million and will look at all options for the fate of the road, including tearing it down.

The EA was quietly shelved two years ago, a fact left-leaning councillors have seized on ahead of the council debate this month to spend $505 million over the next 10 years repairing the Gardiner.

Budget Chief Mike Del Grande successfully got the committee to agree to spend $4.4 million to revive the dormant study.

“Obviously there is a concern, how much money do you spend on it without really analyzing or understanding whether it should stay up, stay down, should it be repaired? To do nothing would be criminal,” Del Grande said.

He said he criticized the EA when it was first approved by former mayor David Miller’s administration because he had the impression that proponents of the study wanted to tear down the Gardiner.

Public Works chairman Denzil Minnan-Wong noted that ultimately it will be up to city council to determine whether to push ahead with the EA.

“I think there are a lot of consequences towards looking at options to tearing down the Gardiner,” he said. “The (Gardiner) is an important part of infrastructure in the south downtown. It is the only road that we have where motorists, businesses and families can quickly get through the downtown without having to be stuck in traffic.”

Councillor Gord Perks accused Mayor Rob Ford’s administration of delaying an important transportation decision by not allowing city council to initially have a say on halting the EA.

“We’re getting further and further behind and gridlock gets worse and worse,” Perks said.

“The whole point of the EA is to get the reasonable options. It is to go ask you, your neighbours, Torontonians, do you want a little piece of it to come down? Do you want to rebuild it? Do you want to tunnel it? What option works best for our transportation needs?” he added.

“It is unfortunate this administration by stealth denied Torontonians the opportunity to answer that question two years ago and now we’ve got to catch up at a time when the Gardiner is starting to crumble.”